Took my SP3 out of the country last week.

[Michael Lovett]

Along with my cell phone, I took the SP3 out of the country last week.

I tried to connect both my cell phone and the SP3 to a variety of routers along the way.

Scorecard:

cell phone: 100%
SP3: 0%

That is, I was able to connect my cell phone to every public router (and some home ones) that I tried and was unable to connect (well, stay connected is a better way to put it) to any of them on the Sp3.

Overall I love my SP3 and I use it daily for work and pleasure, but man was I disappointed when traveling with it. Except for being able to use it as a really nice Kindle reader, it was a waste to haul it around with me.

C'mon MS, how is it possible that this high tech device is easily one of the worst devices in my person history when it comes to working with routers????

 

[JoshB]

I have never had one issue with connecting and staying connected to WiFi devices. I use it for travel as well. Only in the states though. I have connected to several Hotel and food/cafe shops with no issues at all.

 

[nipponham]

I take my SP3 on business trips to Europe and North America and never once had any connection problems, including when I'm traveling in my home ground in Japan. In fact, I just got back from France and Belgium last week and SP3 performed very well. Once the SSID info was entered, SP3 connected very quickly whenever I returned to the hotel or office. They have WiFi on the TGV trains in first class and not once did connection drop even when crossing borders.

 

[Michael Lovett]

Well, your posts are good news for the SP3. Now the question is: why did mine do so poorly?

My symptoms: it would connect immediately and often I could start getting internet content but then within 5 or 10 seconds, I'd end up back with a "No internet connection" message. I could toggle Airplane mode and get the same results.

So it doesn't seem to be a problem connecting to the router, but then something is happening very shortly after that.

??

 

[enthuz]

Has there been a driver version and setting comparison here for the issue. I see threads but no comparisons.

 

[GreyFox7]

Well, your posts are good news for the SP3. Now the question is: why did mine do so poorly?

My symptoms: it would connect immediately and often I could start getting internet content but then within 5 or 10 seconds, I'd end up back with a "No internet connection" message. I could toggle Airplane mode and get the same results.

So it doesn't seem to be a problem connecting to the router, but then something is happening very shortly after that.

??

Hmm, maybe a chip/hardware defect. without some diagnostic info it would be a game of Roulette.

 

[sean_scouser]

I also use mine abroad as I work abroad and never had one problem connecting to any WiFi

 

[everalm]

Used in UK, USA, India (Mumbai), Sao Paulo (Brazil) so far, no connection issues. Initial suggestion is go into hardware manger, remove the drivers for the WiFi and re-install see how that goes. Some folks have had success.

 

[nipponham]

Well, your posts are good news for the SP3. Now the question is: why did mine do so poorly?

Like GreyFox7 infers, I don't think anyone can answer that without looking and comparing the machines that work and don't work. Do wifi problems only occur when you're overseas? In your home country, (I'm assuming USA), you don't encounter any issues with wifi?

I'm lucky I suppose in that all the problems I've had with SP3, wifi has never been one of them.

 

[jnjroach]

I have used my SP3 in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Canada and the US (three SP3's on that trip). I used the SP2 and S2 in all of those as well as 5 cities in India, the Netherlands, Germany, UAE all without issue.

 

[Michael Lovett]

I guess I'm lucky in one regard: my SP3 has always connected reliably to my home router (which is where I use it for work 8+ hours a day).

A month or so ago I did remove and reload the network drivers, which helped a lot with wifi working when coming out of sleep, but it didn't seem to address problems staying connected to other routers.

I wish the error messages were more useful.. perhaps I could get an idea of where to look to figure this problem out..

 

[GreyFox7]

What you describe is not normal, if you reinstalled the driver and Refreshed Id just exchange it.